


raise your glass

by such_heights



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Gen, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-28 16:17:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/309712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/such_heights/pseuds/such_heights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three New Year's Eves: 1999, 2011, and 2734.</p>
            </blockquote>





	raise your glass

**Author's Note:**

> Amy and Rory being bffs with Martha and Mickey is an idea borrowed from offeesuperhero's Family Pond-verse. Title and cut text from Regina Spektor.

_1999._

Amelia is round at Rory's house for the Millennium. The place is buzzing with all of the extended Williams family - sisters and cousins and great uncles. It's fun, because she and Rory are the youngest so everyone's making a fuss of them, and no one here wants to ask her horrible questions about the difference between imagination and reality.

They had a glass of bucks fizz each with dinner and Rory's mum says they can stay up until midnight if they like, and even though Amelia stays up late all the time, it's nice that this time she's actually allowed to. She takes some of the chocolate cake that Rory's aunt made and grabs Rory's hand, tugging him up to his room so they can escape the grown ups.

Rory's bedroom has a window ledge big enough to sit up, so they both clamber up and sit cross-legged, eating cake and looking out of the window.

"You can see the fireworks on the green from here," Rory tells her.

"Cool," says Amelia, wriggling closer. "How much longer?"

"Three minutes." Rory's eyes are wide. "What do you think the 21st century is going to be like?"

"Exciting, probably," says Amelia.

"What, like flying cars and stuff?"

"No, better than that. We'll leave here and have adventures."

"Yeah?" Rory sounds unconvinced.

"Yeah. You and me, and Mels if she can stay out of trouble long enough."

He giggles. "And if you can stay out of trouble long enough."

Amelia grins and kneels up on the ledge. She can hear the grown ups starting to get louder downstairs, so it's probably nearly time. Rory kneels up next her, so she holds his hand.

Suddenly there's noise everywhere - adults singing downstairs, and fireworks exploding. Red and orange and bright gold streams of light shoot up into the sky, and she laughs with delight.

"Happy new year!" Rory shouts over the noise.

"Happy new year," she says right back, and bumps their shoulders companionably. She doesn't let go of his hand.

She has a really good feeling about this century.

\---

 _2011._

There's a general howl of misery as Rory lays down his last scrabble tiles. 'Qualify', seven-letter bonus, and on a triple word score.

"Cheat!" Martha shrieks. "You dirty cheat!"

"This is pure skill," Rory tells her loftily.

Mickey pouts as he writes down the score, which is disgustingly high in Amy's opinion.

"Always said Scrabble was a stupid game," she says, and Rory laughs and leans over to kiss her.

"Sore loser!"

"Am not."

"All right, we need more wine," says Martha, getting up to rectify the sad situation of their empty glasses.

"And it's nearly time." Mickey switches on the TV, where cameras are panning over the huge crowds by the Thames in London, waiting for the fireworks. The presenters are mostly conducting inane interviews with embarrassed-looking attendees, so they talk over the patter until a big, booming voice starts counting down to midnight.

They stand in circle holding hands, shouting along with the TV until fireworks explode all over the screen, lighting all of London up in technicolour, the London Eye blazing like a huge Catherine wheel. The four of them cheer wildly. Amy hugs Martha while Mickey plants a sloppy kiss on Rory, making him go bright red. Amy can't stop laughing as she hugs Mickey too, and then she wheels around to Rory, kissing him soundly while the fireworks crackle and sing.

\---

 _2734._

"Yes dear, I _know_ it's an arbitrary marker that fails to recognise the inherent wibbly-wobbly nature of time, but it's fun anyway and I like it," says River, her hands on the console.

The Doctor smiles at her. "Well, all right then. Which year did you have in mind."

"Hmm." River looks up at one of the displays thoughtfully. "The TARDIS can decide."

They land in the last few hours of Earth's 2734. And though much of the trappings are radically different from the period in Earth's history River knows best, the basic principles are still the same.

They wander out to a midnight market, selling food and drink and ridiculous sparkly hologram tattoos. In a moment of magnanimosity, River lets the Doctor both buy and keep an absurd hat. This one is a top hat with '2735' in glowing gold letters. She'll shoot later, she thinks, but she'll let him enjoy it for a few hours.

They pick up bits of food from half a dozen stalls and sit on a wall overlooking the waterfront, where boats are dotted everywhere competing for the best views of the upcoming lightshow. The Doctor shrugs off his jacket and River kicks off her shoes, letting her feet dangle below her. It's warm, so they're somewhere in the southern hemisphere. River doesn't bother to check, but she guesses that they're in what used to be New Zealand. And very nice it is too.

The Doctor is grinning widely beside her, and he's only spat out half of the things he's tried to eat, so all in all things are going well.

"Happy being just a little linear, just this one?" she asks him.

"I suppose it's not so bad," he says, then laughs.

She threads her arm through his and rests her head on his shoulder, humming happily to herself.

"I can lend you my jacket if you get cold," says the Doctor.

"Good. And I've got a gun in my boot, so I've got your back."

"That's ... comforting."

"You love it."

He sighs. "I do, sadly."

She laughs and rolls her eyes, even though he's probably not looking, but he just wraps an arm around her shoulders as they enjoy a quiet moment of normality. More than a moment, and River would be bored out of her skull, but just for now, it's really rather nice.


End file.
